AMD Catalyst Software Suite Version 13.1
This article provides information on the latest posting of AMDs software suite, AMD Catalyst13.1. This particular software suite updates the AMD display driver and the AMD Catalyst Control Center / AMD Vision Engine Control Center. This unified driver has been updated and is designed to provide enhanced performance and reliability.
Package Content
The AMD Catalyst software suite 13.1 contains the following:
- AMD display driver version 9.012
- HydraVision for Windows Vista® and Windows® 7
- Southbridge/IXP Driver
- AMD Catalyst Control Center version 9.012 / AMD Vision Engine Control Center version 9.012
Caution !
- The AMD Catalyst Control Center / AMD Vision Engine Control Center requires that the Microsoft® .NET Framework SP1 be installed for Windows Vista. Without .NET SP1 installed, the AMD Catalyst Control Center / AMD Vision Engine Control Center will not launch properly and the user will see an error message.
Notes.
- When installing the AMD Catalyst driver for Windows operating system, the user must be logged on as Administrator or have Administrator rights to complete the installation of the AMD Catalyst driver.
- The AMD Catalyst driver requires Windows 7 Service Pack 1 to be installed.
- These release notes provide information on the AMD display driver only. For information on the AMD Multimedia Center, HydraVision, HydraVision Basic Edition, Remote Wonder, or the Southbridge/IXP driver, please refer to their respective release notes found at : http://support.amd.com/.
- AMD Eyefinity technology is designed to give gamers access to high display resolutions. As pixel count grows, the graphics horsepower required to drive the displays at a reasonable frame rate can increase dramatically. Depending on the game and system configuration, users may notice texture corruption and reduced frame rates when running games in multi-monitor Eyefinity modes.
- Windows Driver Model (WDM) drivers are no longer bundled in the AMD Catalyst software suite. The WDM drivers install bundle can be downloaded independently through the AMD website.
AMD Product Compatibility
The AMD Catalyst driver is compatible with the following AMD products.
AMD Desktop Product Family Compatibility
AMD Catalyst Mobility is a notebook reference graphics driver with limited support for system vendor specific features. When used with Windows Vista or Windows 7, the user experience may be limited or compromised.
The Installation Verification Software is designed to prevent driver download on certain notebook products. This is to help protect against the installing of drivers that may disable features or functionality provided by the system manufacturer. When used with Windows Vista or Windows 7, the user experience may be limited or compromised. In such a situation, it is recommended to revert back to the driver provided by your system vendor for your specific platform. Please contact your system vendor for the most recent drivers for your notebook.
AMD Mobility Product Families
The following notebooks are
not compatible with this release:
- Any notebook launched after this driver release
- Toshiba notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
- Sony VAIO notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
- Panasonic notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
Compatible Operating Systems
The latest version of the AMD Catalyst software suite is designed to support the following Microsoft Windows platforms:
- Windows 8 32-bit version
- Windows 8 64-bit version
- Windows 7 32-bit version SP1 or higher
- Windows 7 64-bit version SP1 or higher
- Windows Vista 32-bit version SP2 or higher
- Windows Vista 64-bit version SP2 or higher
FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AMD CATALYST 13.1:
AMD Catalyst Control Center: New 3D settings and profile management user interface:
AMD Catalyst 13.1 features a newly designed 3D application settings page, designed to allow users to more easily adjust and control their 3D settings on a per application basis.
Performance Highlights of AMD Catalyst 13.1 (vs. AMD Catalyst 12.10): Includes all of the performance improvements found in AMD Catalyst 12.11 Beta 11
- Performance gains seen on the entire AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series:
- All game were tested at high / extreme / ultra levels
- Enhanced performance in Far Cry 3 (up to 25% with 8xMSAA, SSAO enabled @ 1600p, and up to 15% with 8xMSAA, HDAO enabled @1600p) (AMD Catalyst 12.11 CAP2 must also be installed)
- Enhanced AMD CrossFire scaling performance in Call of Duty Black Ops 2
- Up to 10%-15% more performance in Battlefield 3 in most cases
- More than 20% in certain missions and sequences (Comrades)
- Up to 7% more performance in Metro 2033
- Up to 10% more performance in DiRT Showdown
- Up to 8% more performance in Sleeping Dogs
- Up to 12% more performance in Civilization V
- Up to 10% more performance in StarCraft II
- Up to 8% more performance in Sniper Elite: V2
- Up to 5% more performance in Max Payne 3
- AMD Catalyst Mobility 7970M performance for AMD Enduro technology supported platforms has been improved for DirectX® 9, DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 applications:
- 3DMark® 06 Up to 6%
- 3DMark Vantage Up to 15%
- 3DMark 11 Up to 12%
- AvP Up to 11%
- Battlefield 3 Up to 25%
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Up to 13%
- Crysis 2: Up to 45%
- DiRT Showdown Up to 62%
- ETQW Up to 8%
- Hard Reset Up to 8%
- Just Cause 2 Up to 90%
- Mafia 2 Up to 40%
- The Chronicles of Riddick Up to 4%
- Shogun 2 Up to 56%
- StarCraft 2 Up to 25%
- Skyrim Up to 45%
- Sniper Elite V2 Up to 60%
- Tom Clancys HAWX Up to 56%
- Unigine Heaven Up to 33%
- Wolfenstein Up to 9%
Resolved Issues for the Windows 8 / Windows 7 Operating Systems:
This section provides information on resolved known issues in this release of the AMD Catalyst 13.1 software suite.
- A sporadic system hang encountered with a single AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series GPU seen on X58 and X79 chipsets.
- An intermittent hang encountered with AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series GPUs in an AMD CrossFire + Eyefinity setup.
- Missing fonts in XBMC
- No video found in Media Player Classic Home Cinema when using full or half floating point processing
- Skyrim lighting (missing a lighting pass) for the AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
- Skyrim cloud corruption experience in various in game locations
- A hang playing Dishonored on the AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series
- Engine and memory clocks running too high when the GPU is idle.
- GPU activity runs at lower values than expected seen on the AMD Radeon HD 7870.
- Corruption seen in Darkness 2 and Carrier Command when using AMD CrossFire configurations
- Adobe Premier Pro CS6 may fail to launch
- Hang experienced with AMD Crossfire and Eyefinity enabled on X58 and X78 chipsets
- Corel PaintShop Pro X3 Hangs at the Initializing Command Manager window
- Company of Heroes 2 display corruption experienced when AA is enabled in the AMD Catalyst Control Center
- Cyberlink Powerdirector 10 crashes intermittently.
- Company of Heroes : Tales of Valor Flickering experienced when AA is disabled
- Max Payne 3 Flickering experienced in DirectX 9 mode with forced AA enabled
- Cyberlink PoweDVD 10 crashes intermittently
- VLC - Green texture corruption seen in 720p MPEG2 video clips
- Black screen encountered when Alternate DVI mode is enabled in the AMD Catalyst Control Center
- Green display corruption seen in Skype webcam video
Known Issues
The following section provides a summary of open issues that may be experienced with the AMD Catalyst 13.1 software suite.
Known issues under the Windows 8 Operating System.
- Sleeping Dogs game may fail to launch in certain configurations
Known issues under the Windows 7 Operating System.
- Shogun 2 Total War : flickering experienced when game is run in medium quality mode
Installing the AMD Catalyst Software Driver
For further information and general help on software driver installation, game issues, and more, visit
AMD Customer Care.
Installation information can be found at:
How to Install Your AMD Product.